I’m sad to say that hypermobility is wildly understudied. Maybe it’s because up to 50% of women suffer from this disorder, compared to the average of 30% in men. It’s a proven issue in the medical world that anything that affects women is wildly understudied. This is just a feminist-driven theory as to why hypermobility isn’t studied as much, but the fact remains that the comorbidity of hypermobility can make it really hard to diagnose!

Thankfully, in the last decade, more studies have come out about the hypermobility spectrum and how it’s way more than your joints that get out of wack regularly.

So if you’re still in your hypermobility research journey, then you might be surprised to learn these five unexpected signs of hypermobility.

Gastrointestinal Issues

TMI Momemt: My whole life, I’ve dealt with insane constipation. I’ve spent years trying to find the source. Admittedly, I’ve never had the best diet. As an Autistic human, textures are a big problem and let’s face it: veggies and fruits aren’t known for their stupendous textures.

Even then, I’ve had colonoscopies, removed various foods out of my diet, i.e., gluten, dairy, potato, and others over the years. I’ve taken laxatives, cleansing pills, drank obscene amounts of water, gotten MRIs, tested blood, EVERYTHING.

Finally, after so much research, I came to realize it’s my Peristalsis process, i.e., the movement of muscles that contract in your intestinal walls and move waste along, is just slow. Unfortunately, turns out for people with hypermobility struggle with this.

Chronic constipation is a big signal for hypermobility, for Ehlers Danos Syndrome more specifically. The walls of the intestines are muscles, but the elasticity of hypermobile people’s (HMPs) connective tissue make it so much harder to let the digestive process do its thing.

Food Sensitivities

As a result of waste moving through much slower, the intestines are more sensitive to anything that causes inflammation. Foods containing gluten or milk are notoriously inflammatory, so when paired with chronically inflamed intestinal walls, well, it’s not the best friendship.

Fatigue

My friend, your body is tired. Hypermobility, for the most part, has to do with overly elastic connective tissue, i.e., collagen. Your body struggles to process it in a healthy way, so there’s not only an excess, what’s there isn’t working very well.

As a result, your body has to work overtime to stay together. How could that not be exhausting, when your meatsuit has to work twice, if not three times, as hard any anyone else?

Muscle Tension

Tied directly into the fatigue is muscle tension. Because the collagen in your body doesn’t want to do its job, your muscles begrudgingly pick up the literal slack. However, that’s why muscle tension is a big issue for HMP. The muscles are overcompensating for looser joints and stretchy tendons. They’re tired!

This is also why massages, whether self-massage or professional massage, is essentially required for HMP. Your muscles need a break sometimes.

Anxiety

Studies have shown that HMP are more prone to anxiety and depression. There are lots of theories which is boiled down to the elasticity of your veins and how your body struggles to communicate within itself due to the elastic connective tissue.

When your body enters a state of hyper-arousal, like fear or excitement, your veins widen to allow the flow of blood to speed up. It creates a fight or flight response, which includes anxiety. However, if the walls of your veins are already elastic…well, your body struggles to tell the difference.

Clumsiness

This will be an all-encompassing title, because I’m tying this into sprains, injuries, dislocations, and subluxations.

Our connective tissues, like fascia and tendons, are also the highways of communication to the brain. In theory, they should say, “Hey! This one thing is happening, move the joint differently to avoid injury!” and in theory, it should happen lickety split. An automatic adjustment that differentiates between slipping off the rock or finding your balance quickly.

However, when the tissue is elastic, the informational highways lengthen and criss-cross. The brain often doesn’t get the message in enough time, which is why hypermobile people are considered, “clumsy.” An ankle suddenly giving out for no reason. Extending your shoulder and suddenly, it slides right out of its cozy socket.

Whoops.

Final Thoughts

There are so many other symptoms, like easy bruising, prolapses, dislocations, hernias, etc. These are some of the most common, outside of the known ones around joints. Do any of these sound familiar?

Discovering you have hypermobility can be both freeing (who doesn’t love a good moment of validation?), but also scary. There’s no cure to it, sadly. Only management where possible.

But it’s better to know, because not knowing will only lead to more injuries and confusion. So stay on this journey and continue to be true to your own truth!

Resources

Symptoms of Hypermobility

How Hormones Affect Women With Hypermobility